Help me find an iPhone app for tracking all the (numerical) things

November 12, 2015 6:14 AM

I need an app to easily track various things in my life that can be captured as numbers. I'm sure the app I'm looking for exists, but I just don't know how to search for it.

I'm looking for a simple app where I can, with minimal fuss, enter numerical stuff from my life. Examples: minutes spent jogging, weight, mileage in car, number of headaches, number of purchases of widget, WHATEVER. Entering a text note along with a number would be a bonus feature.

I don't want the app to have some elaborate routine for actually understanding the numbers to help me with my "fitness lifestyle" or "budgeting" or any such thing. Instead, in one form or another, it should have "buckets" that I create, and then dump numbers into. I'll look at them later and interpret the numbers myself. Even better - export them to a spreadsheet.

It seems quite simple, but I can't find it.

posted by tempythethird to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

You could just use a spreadsheet to start with - Google sheets, or I'm sure there are others available.
posted by insectosaurus at 6:27 AM on November 12, 2015

Evernote. This is precisely what it does (minus the dumping to a spreadsheet). You can make text notes, take pictures, tag notes, search... I'm using it for my gym records to do just this.
posted by joycehealy at 6:27 AM on November 12, 2015

Numerous might be exactly what you want.
posted by SansPoint at 6:47 AM on November 12, 2015

Bean is good looking and minimalist, but only lets you track 9 things.

LogsAll looks a bit more complex, but has the data + text that you want.

Trakr is gorgeous, but for some reason isn't in the US iTunes Store.

Dayta seems to hit a sweet spot for everything.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 7:16 AM on November 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm a big fan of Drafts, and it's not very challenging to create an action that appends a number to a text file. Workflow would be something like:

1. Open Drafts.
2. Enter number.
3. Swipe and choose the action for "Add to Running Mileage"

Drafts can act on different lines too, so first line could be the number, second line could be your note, and then it'll append that to a text file however you like. You can even have it add the date and time you've added it - so you'll end up with a file that looks like this:

3.1;Too many hills!;2015-11-10
8;Beautiful day, felt like I was running downhill;2015-11-11
1;Sore ankle, quit early;2015-11-13

You'd be able to import that into Excel as a CSV (Comma-separated values) file pretty easily.
posted by backwards guitar at 7:21 AM on November 12, 2015

Daytum is designed for simple, customizable data dumps.
posted by neushoorn at 7:28 AM on November 12, 2015

If This, Then That (IFTTT.com) has a couple apps that will do this for you. I believe their notes app will let you set up specific recipes for each kind of number and send that number wherever you want. It also integrates with Numerous and Evernote.
posted by soelo at 9:08 AM on November 12, 2015

Daytum is designed for simple, customizable data dumps.

I use this. Simple interface. Better if you set it up on the web page and then use the app to update but works decently well, hasn't been updated in forever but if basically you just want to keep track of number things, it's easily the simplest.
posted by jessamyn at 11:22 AM on November 12, 2015

There's a quite nice app called Quantifier that lets you create as many trackable things as you want.

I used it for a bit to test it out and it was pretty good.
posted by Happy Dave at 11:52 AM on November 12, 2015

I have used and enjoyed one called Track and Share (or maybe Track'n'Share?). It has a ton of pre-loaded categories and the ability to customize. Don't know about output, as I've never needed that feature.
posted by oblique red at 12:08 PM on November 12, 2015

Lumen Trails will do what you want.
posted by clavicle at 7:59 PM on November 12, 2015